TeaVivre Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea - Review

Go For the Gold

Black teas so often come ground into a dusty powder and packaged in instant tea bags — even in a tea-drinking country like England — that to taste fresh, loose leaf tea imported directly from the East is a whole new experience. TeaVivre (Tea for Life) describes itself not so much as a company or business, but as a group of tea lovers who live in China. Some are Chinese, but others come from Australia, Canada and France. They export tea exclusively from China and source their teas from many different regions, buying organically-grown and -produced teas whenever possible.

TeaVivre's Yun Nan Dian Hong black tea comes from Fengqing in China's Yunnan province, which lies in the southern part of the country, bordering Burma. One of China's most famous tea-producing regions, Yunnan is known for its Pu-erh tea, as well as many black and some green teas. Yun Nan Dian Hong is unlike many black teas, being more golden in color and lighter in taste. It entirely lacks the bitterness displayed by many strong black teas, offering instead a delicious, rounded flavor that needs little milk added.

While we drink both bagged and loose leaf teas, when it comes to black tea, we find that the quality of loose leaf tea is much higher. And when drinking tea this good, a whole pot is so much better than a single mug!